Punch Pubs & Co has partnered with Only A Pavement Away – the hospitality charity supporting people facing homelessness and those wanting to rebuild their lives through employment – to provide soup flasks to people sleeping rough in cities across the UK.
Only A Pavement Away, one of Punch’s strategic ESG partners, has been running the Fill a Flask campaign since 2018. They started by providing flasks of coffee and water to homeless people. Since then, the project has developed into volunteering days at their charity partners’ venues.
Punch was keen to support the campaign, and as a result approached Only A Pavement Away to see if they could make use of their soups to avoid surplus waste due to a menu cycle change.
Only a Pavement Away jumped at the opportunity and the rest is history.
Punch Pubs & Co Sustainability Specialist Jessica Nicklin added: “Punch’s most recent collaboration with Only A Pavement Away’s Fill a Flask campaign has unlocked a new way for us to combat waste and help those experiencing homelessness in society. It’s heartwarming to know we have provided many people with a healthy meal and supported fantastic charities across the UK.”
The Fill a Flask campaign supports Punch’s ESG strategy: Punch Promise. This work is fundamental to their Doing Well, By Doing Good programme. It’s the ethos that underpins everything the business sets its heart on.
As part of its Punch Promise, the leading pub company has endeavoured to send zero waste to landfill by the end of 2028, or faster if they can.
Since Punch’s involvement, Only A Pavement Away has delivered over 2,000 portions of soup to UK charities, including Brighton Food Bank, Edinburgh City Mission and Birmingham City Mission Care Centre.
Only A Pavement Away Founder and Chief Executive Greg Mangham said: “Over the five years we’ve been running Fill A Flask, the support of the hospitality industry has been key in being able to support those living on the streets and/or using hostels for support and their meals.
“Punch’s support has been amazing and has demonstrated how important their communities are to them by supplying 5280 portions of soup across the country. This was a large-scale operation from coordinating with the charities to supplying and helping to distribute the soup nationwide alongside our hardworking volunteers. This momentous activity shows how operators can work more closely with us at Only A Pavement Away to unite against homelessness and support more people facing homelessness back into employment within the hospitality industry.”